Iron Eyes graduated from the University of North Dakota with a bachelor's degree in political science and Native American studies.[5] In 2007, he graduated from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, with a Juris Doctor in law (with an emphasis in Federal Indian law).[6] Iron Eyes was also the president of the Native American Law Student Association during his academic career in law school.[7] Iron Eyes is licensed to practice law within the state of South Dakota as well as in the federal courts of both North Dakota and South Dakota[5] in addition to several tribal court systems.[8]
In July 2012, Iron Eyes filed a civil suit in federal court on behalf of Vern Traversie, a blind 69-year-old Lakota man, against a South Dakota hospital. The lawsuit alleged a violation of Traversie's civil rights, citing scars that Traversie said were from doctors carving the initials of the Ku Klux Klan into his abdomen during heart surgery.[9] The hospital stated the marks were a reaction to surgical tape, and in 2015, a jury ruled against Traversie.[10]
Activism
Pe' Sla is a part of the Black Hills, pictured here, that is sacred to the Lakota.
Iron Eyes has used his career as an attorney to advocate for Native American civil rights. He has served as a staff attorney for the Lakota People's Law Project (LPLP),[11] an initiative founded in 2005 with the purpose of ending the unlawful practice of removing Lakota children from their families and placing them in foster care outside their communities.[12] In the summer of 2016, Iron Eyes and other representatives of LPLP joined with other anti-pipeline protestors near Standing Rock to resist the Dakota Access pipeline.
Iron Eyes has actively engaged in the protection of sacred sites. He was instrumental in raising awareness of Pe' Sla,[13] a high mountain prairie situated within the heart of the Black Hills, a sacred site related to Lakota creation beliefs where annual ceremonies, village gatherings, and other traditional activities took place, located north of Deerfield Lake and west of Black Elk Peak. This is the area where renowned Lakota visionary Black Elk sought his vision.[14] Another of the sacred sites Iron Eyes has drawn attention to is Bear Butte.[5]
He is also a member of the Bush Foundation's Native Nation Rebuilders program, a leadership development program designed to foster innovative tribal governance practices to effect positive change.[15] He has continued to voice opposition against the drilling of oil wells within the area.[16]
Chase is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
On June 8, 2022, Iron Eyes and his wife, Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle, filed legal documents asking a judge to issue court protection against Ezra Miller on behalf of their 18-year-old daughter, Tokata Iron Eyes, due to Miller allegedly using "violence, intimidation, threat of violence, fear, paranoia, delusions, and drugs [including marijuana and LSD]" to hold sway over her.[citation needed] Their "friendship", which began in 2016 when Miller was 23 and Tokata Iron Eyes was 12, also included Tokata Iron Eyes flying to London the following year to visit Miller on the set of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and dropping out of school in 2021 to follow Miller. Iron Eyes and Dr. Jumping Eagle also alleged in their documents that their daughter had taken bruises from Miller and that Miller had misgendered her. Tokata Iron Eyes responded by denying her parents' allegations and saying that she was mentally stable and was in contact with a mental health professional.[19][20][21][22]
